This is a guest post... Author Bio: Alex Smith is a freelance film and television blogger for Direct2TV.com who has been a huge fan of Tom Cruise, Top Gun and things that go fast since childhood. He enjoys writing celebrity profiles and reviews of new movie releases as well as retrospectives on films from the 1970s and 80s, and riding his motorcycle (it’s the closest he’ll get to piloting an F-14). He lives in Washington, D.C.

Tom Cruise: Aviation Ambassador? 

 Tom Cruise is celebrating another birthday (he’s 51 today), and he continues to be one of Hollywood’s top stars after more than three decades in the film business. It all started for Cruise with the movie Taps in 1981, with his first leading role coming just two years later in Risky Business with its iconic “dancing in underpants” scene. Since then, Cruise has appeared almost exclusively in big-budget, critically and financially successful movies, including Rain Man, A Few Good Men, War of the Worlds and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

 But perhaps Cruise’s best known role, and certainly one that established the persona that has allowed him to essentially play “himself” in many subsequent action flicks, came when he played Maverick in the 1986 hit Top Gun. This is the role that not only propelled Cruise to the top of A-list but also seems to have put a love of aviation in his blood, and arguably helped popularize and glamorize flying for much of the general public as well.

The amazing Grumman F-14 Tomcat - anytime baby!  (photo: wikimedia)

 
 When Cruise was preparing for the role of Maverick, he was taken up for three separate rides in the back passenger seat of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat that his character would fly in the film, a taste of jet-powered flight (and the view afforded by the Tomcat’s bubble canopy) that must have been a peak life experience even for a rich and famous actor. The first flight reportedly resulted in him vomiting, but he handled the other two flights well, and some actual in-flight footage filmed using F-14 cockpits can be seen in the finished movie.

 
F-14's and ground crew on a carrier in 2002  (photo: U.S. Navy)

  Top Gun was originally inspired by an article in the May 1983 issue of “California” magazine that described the training, activities and culture at the Navy’s Top Gun School for fighter pilots. The movie itself pays homage to the real training facility it portrays in several ways: